About Face Theatre Collective
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
About Face Theatre has a 25-year history of developing theatre and arts-based educational programs dedicated to advancing dialogue about gender and sexuality. AFT is led by and serves LGBTQIA+ people including youth, people of color, people with disabilities and other intersecting identities. The work of AFT supports these communities through telling nuanced stories of LGBTQIA+ lives that increase awareness, empathy and action, by providing training and performance opportunities for people to build their own personal capacities, and by creating programs that center complex LGBTQIA+ lives. AFT supports LGBTQIA+ and allied artists from youth to seasoned professionals. The company’s current artistic programs include a union-affiliated season of multi-week productions, educational programming including youth theatre workshops, leadership development, community engagement and tour events, and workshops of new plays.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Theatre Productions
Professional, multi-week theatrical productions and one-night readings - often world or midwest premieres - that promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and allied (LGBTQIA) voices, histories, and perspectives in order to further the national dialogue on sexual and gender identity. The work onstage as well as auxiliary programs reveal community strategies for persistence and joy, acknowledge specific ways that social inequalities impact LGBTQIA+ people, and strengthen networks of support.
Community Engagement & Touring Programs
AFT Community Engagement and Touring Programs has provided touring performances and workshops to schools, churches, campuses, and conferences for over twenty years. These performances and discussions provide opportunities for people of all ages to have important conversations about gender, sexuality and intersecting identities, while exploring ways to be a better ally and support healthy relationships.
About Face Youth Theatre
About Face Youth Theatre is an award winning and nationally-recognized Youth Theatre program. Through original ensemble plays, created in dynamic collaboration with accomplished adult artists, we encourage and support LGBTQIA+ youth and their allies to become powerful agents for change. As a result of this program, AFYT has developed and performed more than 20 original productions.
Green Room Collective
About Face Theatre’s Green Room Collective (GRC) provides paid part-time positions on the AFT staff for the next generation of LGBTQ+ generative leaders. In a process of creating theatre, the Green Room is backstage where preparation takes place. The Green Room is a space for camaraderie and community, vulnerability and questioning. It’s the place to experiment with your big idea and work out the details with others. The Green Room is often the last stop before you take the stage. In AFT’s GRC program, each participant will advance through a series of individualized skill building activities, engage in meaningful tasks that directly support AFT operations, and take actions toward their school and/or career goals. The Green Room Collective program is the result of a significant revision to AFT’s past leadership programs and has the potential to transform the trajectory for underrepresented leaders in the field while elevating AFT’s operational capacity to serve its dynamic mission.
Where we work
External reviews

Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of professional artists employed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
LGBTQ people
Related Program
Theatre Productions
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of attendees
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
LGBTQ people
Related Program
Theatre Productions
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person),
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
Our staff, Our board,
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
About Face Theatre Collective
Board of directorsas of 02/22/2022
Aaron Kacel
Derek Blin
Sheldon Brown
Kathe Elwell
Sean Gill
Daniela Hautzinger
Becky Huinker
Aaron Kacel
Maxwell Koziol
Delia Kropp
Sharon Pasia
Ed Talideh
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/30/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.